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TUNIS, Tunisia — Thousands of Tunisians crowded a square in Tunis yesterday to put pressure on
the Islamist-led government to step down as it works toward crisis negotiations with the secular
opposition.

The protest, meant to kick off a week of rallies against the ruling Ennahda party, brought
together about 10,000 protesters according to police estimates, far fewer than the 100,000 who
crowded the same square early this month.

“The people want the fall of the regime!” shouted the crowds, using the slogan popularized when
Tunisians ousted strongman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 and sparked a wave of uprisings across
the Arab world.

Anti-government protests picked up in Tunisia in late July after the second killing of a secular
politician by suspected Islamist radicals this year.

Opposition forces also were inspired by protests that led to the overthrow of Egypt’s Muslim
Brotherhood government in July. The ensuing political standoff led the assembly drawing up Tunisia’s
new constitution to suspend its work.

Since then, Ennahda chairman Rached Ghannouchi has begun consultations with the powerful UGTT
trade union aimed at launching negotiations with the secular opposition to find a way out of the
crisis.

Opposition parties so far have rejected his offer of a caretaker government to oversee new
elections because he wants it to be led by a member of his party.

Protester Nejet Brissi, 41, said she supports the opposition’s call for the government to step
down and make way for a neutral caretaker Cabinet to oversee a new vote.

“Since Ennahda came to power, we have been suffering,” she said. “We have been crushed by the
rising cost of living. There is no security anymore. We are living in fear of terrorists.”